Monday, August 27, 2012

Movie Review - 2016: Obama's America

Those in the far right wishing to throw a tea party for an all out Anti-Obama bashing film will be sorely disappointed. Those on the far left who want to scream ‘outrage’ and throw a tantrum over biased political rhetoric ... will also be sorely disappointed.

But those in the middle, even if they teeter more to an extreme, will find a solid debate film in the new documentary, 2016: Obama’s America.

A highs and lows documentary that is filled with post movie going conversation and activities. Yes, activities. If you are open minded and middle, you will find yourself on the internet, researching and fact checking a lot of what you heard and saw in the documentary.

The documentary is presented by conservative, Dinesh D'Souza, Author of ‘The Roots of Obama’s Rage’. It’s not coincidental that it was released so close to election as a means to inform and influence voters. Just as the release of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 wasn’t coincidental.

That being said. The documentary is fact and theory. It is broken into primarily five sections: The author, Obama’s life, education in anti colonization, Obama’s biological father, and the combining of facts and actions to substantiate the presented theory as possible reality in 2016.

During the 87 minutes, the documentary uses Obama’s own words via his own book, Dreams of my Father, to convey his life. It’s factually stated and even drums up sympathy for the screwed up childhood of our president. By examining the book, the documentary determines that Obama has an idol worship for his estranged father. And by having this ‘worship’ also has his father’s anti colonization ideals. In my opinion, if our president has anti America, anti colonization ideals they stem from his mother. She spoon fed glorification of his father into his mind. She also had some sort of weird obsession with being oppressed. She moved with Obama to the slums of Indonesia with her second husband and when the second husband worked them out of the slums to a better life. she rebelled and sent Obama to the grandparents.

Setting aside the anti colonization connection and theory, the documentary presents an in-depth look at Obama’s father. It also has some cool interviews. Although some of the interviews seemed ‘led’ and ridiculous (Like the one with Obama’s mother’s friend), most of the interviewees, were sincere.

I was educated about Hawaii and had no idea they still rebel about being a state. There were things that Obama had done during his first term that I was unaware of. Simple fact checking will prove what is surprisingly true and what was a truth being stretched.

In the words of my daughter, “Nothing is scarier than the thought of a second term president and what he will do’. Dinesh aimed to show that, and that’s the only portion of the film that I believed failed.

The movie is billed as: The documentary is a conservative critique of what the country would look like four years from now if President Barack Obama is re-elected.

But so much of the movie was spent informing that the entire point of the movie was crammed into the final 3 minutes. The end just seemed a little rushed and Scooby doo. IE: Here’s the bad guy, this is what he did and why. In fact, very little was said about how the America would be in 2016. Maybe I missed it.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it. I was informed and entertained. For 16.75 (I had to get popcorn) I received an education not only on our president’s younger life and family, but other issues as well. I was given ‘wow’ moments as well as ‘Ah, come on!’ ones. I laughed out loud at intended humor and walked out of the movie pleased.

If you see it, agree or disagree on what was presented, do yourself a favor and fact check.